Ginny Weasley's Keeper
by ashenrenee
Summary: She was tired of death. Tired of fighting. Tired of the war. The war had torn Ginny Weasley's heart apart and by the time Harry's body hit the floor of the Great Hall all she wanted was to die. There was nothing left that was worth living for. Voldemort Wins AU.
1. The Final Battle

**Hey guys, this is going to be a short story, no more than five chapters I think.  
**

 **This is a Ginny/Rabastan pairing in a Voldemort wins AU. Warnings for major character death, attempted suicide, the possibility of both violence and scenes of a sexual nature.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything, all recognizable content belongs to JK Rowling.**

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If there was ever anything that Ginny Weasley was sure about it was that she loved Harry Potter. Had loved him from the first moment she had ever seen him at Kings Cross when she was ten years old. For six years she had loved him, worshiped him even. She'd devoted herself to him, waited for him, tried to get over him, failed to get over him, and after five years of torment he'd finally given in.

It hadn't lasted long. War made everything complicated, it blurred lines, it destroyed people, it made foolish Gryffindor boys with hero complexes break up with their girlfriends so that they could go running off to look for dark objects that no one knows anything about.

She'd spent so long waiting for news about him, gone so long with nothing more than whispers and rumors and nothing concrete. And then he was there, in the castle, standing in front of her in the Room of Requirement and she was so happy to see him that she forgot that they were in the middle of a war. She forgot that they weren't together anymore, that Harry had left her without so much as a real goodbye. Because it didn't matter that he had been a git about it because he was _alive._

There hadn't been much time to be happy though. Before she knew it they were fighting again, engaged in the most intense battle she'd seen so far and people around her were dropping like flies. Colin Creevey, Remus and Tonks, Lavender Brown, even one of her own brothers, Fred, all gone in the blink of an eye. Lost to the mindless violence of their opposition.

She was tired of death. Tired of fighting. Tired of the war. The war had torn Ginny Weasley's heart apart and by the time Harry's body hit the floor of the Great Hall all she wanted was to die. There was nothing left that was worth living for.

Harry wasn't even cold before the executions began. The first one to go was Ginny's mother, followed closely by her father and then every male member of both Dumbledore's Army and the Order. Neville and Dean and Seamus, boys she had been friends with for years, all of them joined the pile of bodies that had begun to grow on top of Harry. When Bill and Charlie were brought forward Ginny began to scream.

Someone held her back when she tried to rush forward, tried to stop it from happening, to throw herself in front of them and beg for their lives. She didn't even realize that she was crying until she sagged into the arms of her captor and broke into hysterical sobs as her two eldest brothers both dropped to the floor, their eyes open and glassy, staring lifelessly at the ceiling. George and Percy went next and when Percy's eyes connected with hers she felt something deep inside of her shatter.

"I love you Ginerva," he said, his words barely reaching her across the distance between them before the jet of green light from Voldemort's wand hit him in the chest. He fell to the ground in slow motion, landing with a dull thud that she knew would echo in her nightmares for the rest of her life.

She never would have admitted it if anyone had asked, never would have told anyone willingly that Percy was her favorite brother. The only brother that had noticed when she was falling apart during her first year. The one that made her eat when she had no appetite, that asked her everyday if she was okay, if she needed anything. The one who always had time to talk to her when she was upset or hurt or just need to talk. Percy who had understood her and loved her more than anyone, was gone.

Ron was next, and then Ginny was alone. The only Weasley left in the world. She hoped that she wouldn't be for long. After Ron she stopped paying attention, a lot of people died, a few of them Ginny knew, most of them she didn't, she couldn't bring herself to care either way. All she could think about was the bodies of her parents and her brothers and the only man she had ever loved and she just couldn't bring herself to care about any of the others that were being piled on top of her family.

The executions stopped. Ginny listened as Voldemort praised his followers, as he commended them for their determination to win the wizarding world for him. She listened as he began to pass out female prisoners like trophies. Hermione was given to Theodore Nott, Luna was passed to Draco Malfoy, Hannah Abbot went to Thorfinn Rowle, Cho Chang to Yaxley, name after name was called and they were all given a prisoner and told that they could do with them what they wished and Ginny prayed that whoever got her would kill her as soon as possible.

"Rabastan," Voldemort called. "You have been loyal, you have fought well, I think that it is only fair that you are rewarded as well."

"Thank you my Lord," Rabastan, the man who was holding Ginny captive, who had held her back when she'd attempted to save her brothers, replied.

"You may have the Weasley girl," Voldemort told him. She might have been upset if she cared. But her family was dead. She had lost everything. The love of her life was dead. And Ginny couldn't bring herself to feel anything but grief.

"Thank you my Lord," Rabastan repeated. Ginny wondered if he knew any words other than _Thank you my Lord,_ or _Yes my Lord,_ or – probably – _I'm sorry my Lord_.

Later, when Rabastan brought her to his home, she finally got a good look at the man who was meant to be her keeper. Rabastan Lestrange was not a bad looking man, in fact if he was not a deplorable excuse for a human being and hadn't aided in the downfall of Harry Potter Ginny might have found him attractive. He was young, no older than his mid-thirties, with dark hair and onyx eyes.

They stared at each other in the entryway for a long time before Ginny got up the courage to speak. "Kill me," she begged, her eyes sparkling with tears. He gazed at her impassively and let the silence between them grow until it was nearly unbearable.

"No," he whispered and Ginny found that she could feel something other than grief. She could feel hate.

..oo0O0oo..

After he refused to kill her she went on a rampage. She threw things, broke things, overturned furniture, accidentally set things on fire, and when she had destroyed nearly every thing that Rabastan owned she sat on the floor and cried.

No one could ever call Rabastan Lestrange a good man. He never deluded himself into thinking that he was good person who had made mistakes in his past but had changed his ways. He was a bad person, you could probably go as far as to call him evil. He killed without second thought, raped without conscience, tortured without guilt. His soul was just as dark as the mark on his left arm and he had never felt ashamed of it in his life.

But standing in the doorway and watching Ginny Weasley cry in the middle of his kitchen floor Rabastan knew that something deep inside of him had shifted. Never in his life had he felt such an overwhelming urge to protect someone, to wrap himself around them and make it so that nothing could ever harm them. She made him feel things that he'd long since decided that he just wasn't capable of feeling. It was a confusing swirl of remorse and shame that he'd never encountered before and he hated it.

"Follow me Miss Weasley," he commanded, doing his best to keep his voice even. "I will show you to your room." He turned and exited the kitchen, not bothering to see if she was following him. He walked through the house and opened the door to the bedroom, the only bedroom in the house that was currently furnished and stepped back to let her enter first.

"What happens now?" she asked, her voice hoarse from all the screaming and crying she'd done. He stared at her for a long moment, trying to decide how best to answer her question when he wasn't quite so sure what the answer was himself.

"You go into the bathroom and you take a shower, I'll leave something for you to wear on the bed," he decided. "Then you're going to get into bed and go to sleep, you've had a bad day, you're exhausted, and you're not going to be of any use to me if you're on the verge of collapsing." She raised an eyebrow at him.

"You're not going to rape me in my sleep are you?" she demanded.

If he was being completely honest with himself he couldn't say that the thought hadn't crossed his mind. Ginny was a very pretty girl, he wouldn't mind having her, but there was something about her that made him want to wait until she wanted him. He wanted it to be her choice, another foreign notion that the girl had brought into his life. In the past it had never much mattered to him if a witch was willing or not, if he wanted her he would take her, but this witch... she was different.

"No." He shook his head. "This is the only furnished bedroom in the house, so I'm afraid that you'll have to share the bed with me, but I'm not going to rape you." She gave him a look that told him that she didn't believe a word he was saying but she walked into the bathroom and slammed the door without saying another word, which he decided was about as close to acceptance as they were going to get.

He walked to his closet and picked out a clean pair of boxers and one of his old Quidditch jerseys and left them on the bed for her before he slipped out of the room and went around the house repairing broken items and righting the furniture, wondering what the hell he was going to do with the witch that the Dark Lord had gifted him.


	2. The First Year

_**May**_

The first month was hell. Ginerva hated him with a passion that burned like a raging inferno. He did his best not to make her feel uncomfortable, but by the way she had taken to carrying a kitchen knife around the house he wasn't so sure that he was successful. She wasn't allowed to have a wand, something that she made sure he knew made her angry.

Since he refused to use her as a sex slave, something that he liked to think that she was secretly grateful for, he put her to work keeping the house clean the muggle way. He refused to let her cook, afraid that if he did she might poison him, but every morning he would leave her a list of chores and every evening he would come home to find the house immaculate.

They didn't talk, they didn't touch, they tried their best not to even look at each other. The only true interaction they had was at night when they would lie in bed next to one another, both of them trying to pretend that the other wasn't there. Even in their sleep they actively avoided touching each other. Him because he wanted her and he was afraid that all it would take was one touch and he would rape her and ruin any chances he had of winning her over. Her because she hated him so much she slept with that damn kitchen knife under her pillow and never stopped reminding him that she could gut him in his sleep if she really wanted to.

 _ **June**_

"Why did you become a Death Eater?" She spoke so quietly that Rabastan was almost positive that he'd imagined it, but she was staring at him, waiting for an answer. He frowned and tried to think of what to say, what he could tell her without sounding... but there wasn't exactly any point in trying to hide how he really felt from her either.

"Because I wanted an excuse to murder and rape and torture people and I wanted to do it surrounded by people who wanted to do it just as badly as I did," he admitted. She stared at him, wide eyed and he sighed. "Look, Ginny, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that I was young and impressionable and I had to join because my father joined and my brother joined and I would be killed if I didn't join too. I suppose that all those things are true but honestly they had nothing to do with why I took the mark.

"I took the mark because I hate muggles and mudbloods and I'd very much like to exterminate them. They don't belong in our world." He smiled softly at her horrified expression. "You played Quidditch right?" he asked. Ginny nodded. "You joined the team because you wanted to play with others who enjoyed the game as much as you did, because you wanted to share your love for flying with others who also love flying. I joined the Dark Lord because I wanted to kill muggles, because I wanted to rape the pretty ones before I killed them, because I wanted to torture mudbloods to the brink of insanity before I let them die, and I wanted to share the experience with others who wanted to do the same thing. Solidarity, if you will."

He watched her face as he spoke, noting the way that the horror in her expression morphed into pity. He wondered what he'd said that made her pity him. He wondered why she didn't look afraid. He wondered why he cared.

 _ **July**_

She cried a lot. So much that a lot was an understatement. She cried constantly. He'd come home from doing his daily job as an underling to an evil dictator to find her curled up on the sofa sobbing as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest, which – he supposed – it technically had. She cried in her sleep, she cried in the shower, she cried when she was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floors.

She made no secret that she missed the Potter boy. She babbled about him through her tears, between heart wrenching sobs that did funny things to Rabastan's mind. He hated, _hated_ the way that she made him feel. Guilty, so guilty he wanted to get down on his knees and beg her to forgive him for the things that he had done to help the Dark Lord kill her boyfriend. Concerned, she didn't eat enough, didn't sleep enough, and she cried too bloody much. He worried that she wasn't drinking enough water to make up for what her body expelled in tears. He hated the protective instinct that was so intense it bordered on possessive. Most of all he hated that when Harry Potter's birthday came she locked herself in one of the empty bedrooms and refused to come out for a week.

 _ **August**_

He came home from the revel covered in blood and feeling more stated than he'd felt in a long time. Having Ginny sleep next to him every night and refusing to touch her was starting to put him on edge, he was beginning to think that he could skip on earning his redemption and just fuck her and it would make his life so much easier.

He'd had enough with the strange sense of morality he felt when he was in her presence. Who was she to make him feel bad for being who he was? He was a cold blooded killer, one little girl shouldn't have the ability to alter his entire perspective on his life. She made him want to be a better man and he loathed her for that.

He walked into the sitting room, with the intention of raping her silly just for the sake of regaining his hold on himself, to find her curled into a tight ball on the floor, sobbing. He stopped in his tracks, that annoying conscience he'd recently developed nagging at him to do something to comfort her.

"Ginerva?" he said, in the strongest voice he could muster up. "What's wrong?" She looked up at him, her blue eyes red and puffy and her pert little nose running in a way that made her look like a small child who had fallen and scraped her knees. He actively had to resist the urge to cross the room and scoop her up in his arms and hold her until she felt better.

"It's my brother's birthday today," she croaked. He blinked at her in surprise. He hadn't been expecting that.

"Which brother?" he asked. "I happen to remember that you had quite a few of those."

"Percy," she murmured. "It's Percy's birthday."

"The uptight one that worked for the ministry?" He gave her a questioning look and she nodded.

"He-" she frowned, weighing her words carefully in her mind. "I was born eleven days before his fifth birthday, he used to tell me that I was his favorite birthday gift." She let out a small sob. "People remember him as some pompus, uptight swot but... he wasn't always like that. He was smart and ambitious but he could be funny too, he always knew how to make me feel better when my entire world was falling apart, and he... Percy loved me. Sometimes I think he might have cared more about me than mum and dad did."

Rabastan thought, a bit unwillingly, of Rodolphus. There had never been a question in his mind that his brother loved him infinitely more than their parents had. Roddy had been his best friend for years, they'd even shared a cell in Azkaban together. He couldn't imagine what his life would be without him. A sudden and unwelcome wave of compassion and understanding flooded through him and Rabastan hated her even more for making him realize just what it was that she had lost.

 _ **September**_

"Are you going to work today?" Rabastan looked up in surprise to see Ginny standing in the doorway of his study. She wasn't looking at him – not that he was surprised because she hadn't made eye contact with him once since the day he'd brought her home – and she had her hands clasped in front of her like she was trying very, very hard not to fidget.

"Yes, I'm leaving in a about an hour, why?" he asked. She shifted uncomfortably and glanced up at him for a split second before returning her eyes at the floor.

"Will you-" she let out a frustrated sigh – "my friend Hermione... I was wondering if you were going to see Theo Nott today," she said. Rabastan watched her closely, trying to decide what she was up to.

"Yes, Nott will be there," he confirmed. Ginny nodded, her expression anxious, as if she was uncertain about what it was she wanted to say. "Why Ginny?"

"Is he... You haven't touched me," she blurted. "You said... when you brought me here you said you wouldn't and I didn't believe you but you haven't and I... I'm grateful, really I am-"

"Gin what does that have to do with Nott?" he cut her off. Ginny blushed bright red and if he wasn't so frustrated with her at that moment he might have found her adorable.

"He... the evil maniac you work for... he gave Hermione to him and I just wondered-"

"Nott has never cared much for rape, I'd be very surprised if he's forced himself on your friend," Rabastan answered her unasked question. Ginny looked up at him and for the first time the he could remember in the time he'd known her she held his gaze.

"Could you ask him if he'd give her a message from me?" she asked.

Rabastan frowned. "What's the message?"

"Tell her I said happy birthday," she whispered. Rabastan stared at her for another moment before nodding. Ginny smiled, the first smile he'd ever seen grace her features and he felt his stomach twist a little at the sight.

 _ **October**_

There was blood everywhere. It was splattered across the bathroom mirror, smeared on the walls, it was even on the ceiling. It spread across the floor in a crimson pool that he was sure would haunt him in his dreams for years to come.

She was lying in the center of the pool, her copper hair soaked with the blood that poured out of the deep lacerations in her wrist, she was as pale as death and for a moment Rabastan felt true fear that she was actually dead. That he was too late.

He got the feeling that that was the point she wanted to make, that he was too late, and he would have been, would have been too late to save her if he hadn't come home early. He healed her as best he could and poured a Blood Replenishing potion down her throat before dragging her into the shower and turning the cold water on full blast

Her eyes shot open and she shrieked at the frigid temperature of the water. Rabastan ignored her, far too irritated to bother with her discomfort as he scrubbed the blood out of her hair.

"What are you doing?" she demanded angrily. "Leave me alone!"

"No, because obviously you can't be trusted!" he shouted, roughly massaging shampoo into her scalp and resisting the urge to yank a handful of hair out of her head in retaliation for scaring him. "What the hell were you thinking Ginny?" he hissed. "Are you really that unhappy? Have I been that awful to you? I thought that things were going well, you have it better here than a lot of the other girls do where they ended up! I haven't forced myself on you, I haven't hurt you, so what the fuck is your problem?"

"I want my mum!" she screamed. Spinning around to face him and nearly slipping on the slick shower floor. "I miss her! I just... it's her birthday and I just want-" she let out a loud sob and sank to the ground. "I want my mum." Rabastan stood in the cold spray of the shower and stared down at her, watching as she cried. She was so broken, he was beginning to wonder if he would ever be able to fix her.

 _ **November**_

She did better with her brother Bill's birthday than she had with her mother's and Percy's. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement between the two of them to never speak of her attempt to end her own life. She didn't bring it up because she didn't want to talk about it, he didn't bring it up because he was afraid that if he did she might try again.

She asked him what had happened to Fleur, the french woman who had been Bill's wife and Rabastan had had to tell her that she'd been given to Amycus Carrow, who had raped her so viciously that she'd died of internal injuries. He wondered at the odd expression when he'd told her that, like she couldn't decide how to feel.

"I hated her," she whispered. "I... When she married Bill... I used to wish that something horrible would happen to her so that she would disappear and leave my brother alone." Rabastan leaned against the kitchen counter and stared at her, letting her sort out her feelings. "Do you think-"

"She didn't die because you wished for it Ginny, she died because Carrow can't control himself." He sighed and shook his head. "No amount of wishful thinking can kill a person. You haven't suddenly become a murderer because you didn't like that your brother paid more attention to her than to you." It was hard to keep the anger out of his voice as he spoke. It was one thing for him to be a bad person, to know that he was morally corrupt, but Ginny was... Ginny was _good_... and Rabastan got the feeling that he would be damned if he let her forget that.

 _ **December**_

"I have a surprise for you." Ginny looked up at him and he was a little pained to see that she looked quite suspicious. Surely by now she would realize that she could trust him? "A gift, actually," he corrected himself. Her eyes narrowed dangerously and smirked at her before stepping out of the doorway and letting the couple standing in the entryway enter the room.

If he was the kind of man that felt pride at the look of complete and utter joy on a woman's face when he finally got something right he might have exploded at the look on Ginny's face when she realized who he's brought home with him.

"Hermione!" she screeched. There was a blur of pale skin and red hair and before anyone could react Ginny had flown across the room at a speed Rabastan might have previously believed impossible and flung herself at the petite, curly haired brunette. It was only Theo Nott's arms around Hermione's waist that kept the two girls from collapsing to the floor in a heap of over emotional female mush.

"Ginny," Hermione sobbed, both of them crying hysterically as they clung to each other with a ferocity that had Rabastan wondering if they would be fused together from that point on. "Oh Gin, I love you so much."

"I love you too," Ginny breathed. "Good Godric I've missed you." Ginny peeled herself away from Hermione and they both looked each other over for signs of abuse or mistreatment before wrapping themselves around one another again.

"I've thought about you every day," Hermione whispered, barely loud enough for Rabastan to be able to hear. "Are you- Of course you're not alright but are you-" Hermione broke off, seemingly unable to form a coherent sentence.

He wondered idly what her answer would be. The only reason he'd thought to ask Theo to bring Hermione to see Ginny was because he'd walked in the door after work a few days before to find Ginny sobbing on the floor, again, because it was her brother Charlie's birthday.

He had realized then that he needed to find her someone to talk to, because there was no way that he could stand sitting through another one of her emotional breakdowns without trying to snog her better. And he highly doubted she would appreciate that.

"I'm here and I'm alive and I'm learning to be okay with that," Ginny told her. Rabastan smiled and invited Theo to the kitchen for drinks to let the girls catch up, thinking that if Ginny was going to be okay then maybe he would be too.

That was the night she stopped sleeping with the knife. He liked to call it progress.

 _ **January**_

"My first year at Hogwarts Lucius Malfoy slipped a diary that housed a piece of your Dark Lord's soul into my school supplies." Rabastan rolled over in their bed to look at her, wondering what the hell had made her tell him that. "I wrote in it all the time, and Tom, that was his name once, he wrote back. I told him everything, about how much I hated being the youngest, how much I hated being the only girl, how it felt to be overlooked all the time. I told him about Harry, about how much I loved him and he was very sympathetic.

"He possessed me," she admitted. "I let him into my mind and he opened the Chamber of Secrets because of me. Hermione was petrified because of me. Because Tom Riddle, as a sixteen year old boy, was charming and charismatic and so very understanding. He knew exactly what to say to make you feel like the most important person in the world and it was a time in my life when I wanted very much to be important to someone."

"Why are you telling me this?" He asked. Ginny tore her gaze away from the ceiling to look over at him, her blue eyes glittering with tears.

"Do you want to know what the worst part of it is?" she asked, ignoring his question. Rabastan nodded, although he wasn't sure that he really did. "The possession, opening the Chamber, being the reason so many people ended up petrified that year, I can live with all of that. I came to terms with that a long time ago but the worst part... the worst part is that I _miss_ him. That sometimes I lie awake at night and think 'I just want to talk to Tom. Tom would understand. Tom could make it better.'" She drew a shaky breath and she reached out and laced her fingers through his and Rabastan nearly jumped at the contact. It was the first time Ginny had ever willingly touched him.

"It's not bad you know," he breathed. "It's not bad to miss something that made you feel good." She didn't say anything for a long time, and if he hadn't been looking at her, hadn't been staring into her eyes as she stared into his, he might have thought she'd fallen asleep.

"Why did you save me?" she asked, changing the subject so fast that he was afraid she might give him whiplash. "In October, you could have let me die... why didn't you?" Rabastan sighed and looked down at where their hands were joined. He considered lying to her, but he'd yet to do that yet and he didn't particularly want to start now.

"Because I had hoped that... if I saved you, maybe someday you could return the favor. Maybe someday you can look at me and see someone worth saving."

 _ **February**_

The first time Ginny Weasley kissed him she was crying. He walked into the house, fresh from a revel and covered in blood and she was waiting for him in the entry way, eyes red and puffy, cheeks streaked with tears, sniffling like a child who had been denied dessert. He waited for her to say something and for a few moments it looked like she was going to, her mouth opened slightly and he could see the wheels in her head turning at a million miles a minute before she gave up and launched herself at him.

Ginny tasted like granny smith apples, like cinnamon and caramel and Rabastan had never wanted another witch more in his entire life. She kissed like her life depended on it, like she'd been poisoned and kissing him was the antidote.

His hands came up and threaded through her hair and he thought, for a brief moment, that none of the women he'd ever been with had hair like hers. He'd always preferred blondes and at that moment, with the silky, copper colored strands tangled around his fingers, he could not for the life of him remember why. Her hair was _glorious_.

At some point, he couldn't remember when, he'd pushed her back against the wall and she'd wrapped both her arms and legs around him and she was rubbing herself against him like a cat in heat. It was sometime after that, between the time it took him to peel them both out of their clothes and them finding their completion in one another that Rabastan realized that there was a new emotion mixed in with the lust and the need and the want, something he didn't even know how to name.

It was raw and primitive and it made his blood boil in a way that sinful and delicious. He felt that he could kiss a million women, shag every witch in the world, he could chase that feeling to the ends of the earth and only ever find it with her.

When it was over they sank to the floor in a heap and Ginny cried, and Rabastan held her close to him and wondered if this was a habit she had or if he'd done something wrong.

"I forgot," she whispered. Rabastan frowned and held her closer, kissing the top of her head and waiting for her to elaborate. "My dad's birthday was last week, and I forgot." Rabastan closed his eyes and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She was doing it again, making him feel things that he didn't want to feel.

"It's okay Gin." She clung to him as she cried harder, sobbing into his chest as he rocked her gently back and forth.

"Don't let me forget them," she begged. "I'm so afraid that someday I'm going to forget what my dad's voice sounded like or that my mum smelled like fresh baked bread. I'm afraid I'll forget what it felt like when Charlie would come home from Romania, or what it was like to be wrapped up in a hug from Bill. I miss them. I don't want to forget the twins laughter, or Ron's constant whining, or the sound of Percy telling me that he loves me. Please, Rabastan, don't let me forget."

"You won't forget," he told her, hoping for the life of him that it wasn't a lie. "If you do, I'll remind you. I don't know how, but I will."

 _ **March**_

The unspoken no touching rule went out the window and Rabastan woke up most mornings with Ginny wrapped in his arms. She turned to him for comfort almost every night and he would almost be happy about it if he didn't feel slightly used. She only ever fucked him when she was crying. On her brother Ron's birthday they didn't even leave the bed. She alternated between crying hysterically and fucking him with a ferocity that was nearly terrifying.

Being with her brought around problems he'd never thought that he would ever have. There were, of course, the feelings, which were problematic enough on their own. There was that unnamed emotion, it was always there, every time he looked at her, and it was honestly beginning to scare him because it got stronger and stronger every day and he didn't know what the fuck it was. As if that wasn't enough there was the guilt. He felt guilty, _guilty_ , because he knew that she was using sex to avoid her emotions, to forget the pain of losing her family, and he was letting her.

He couldn't bring himself to stop though. It wasn't healthy, not for him, certainly not for her, but he'd waited so long to have her that he didn't want to let go now that he did. So he let her use him and he hated himself for it.

 _ **April**_

She baked a cake. She baked a cake for the twin's birthday and it was _awful_. It was lopsided and had caved in in the middle and she frosted it with lumpy homemade frosting that she'd tried to color purple but just ended up being a hideous mauve color that reminded him of his grandmother's favorite dress. Sadly if he thought it looked bad it tasted even worse.

He'd been right, he decided, when he'd forbidden her from cooking his meals, just not for the reason he'd originally thought. Ginny would never intentionally poison him, but her cooking was so bad she might actually do it accidentally.

Oddly enough it was the cake that did him in. Sitting at the dining room table and force feeding himself forkfuls of that cake while he watched her clean the kitchen, her hair was tied up in a sloppy knot at the top of her head and her clothes were splattered with cake batter and flour and she had a smear of frosting on her cheek and she'd never looked so beautiful before. That was the moment it all clicked inside of him and that unnamed emotion suddenly not only had a name but it also became the most important thing in the world to him.

He was in love with Ginny Weasley.


	3. The Second Year

_**May**_

A year. A year since her world had come crashing down around her in the most tragic way. Since Harry had fallen, since her parents had died, since her brother's had been taken from her. Since she'd been given to Rabastan. Ginny was more than aware of the things that could change in a year.

She wasn't sure what had started it, whatever it was that she felt for the man who was her captor. It had started as hatred but had morphed into something that Ginny had wanted to believe was gratitude but she was sure that wasn't it. She didn't know what it was, and she wasn't sure that she really wanted to know either.

Rabastan dragged her to a party, not because he'd wanted to but because it was expected of him to bring her, and it wasn't until they were walking through the floo to Malfoy Manor that Ginny realized that it was the first time she'd left Rabastan's home, their home, since the night he'd brought her there. _Their home._ She wondered when it had become home to her.

She'd stood next to Rabastan the entire night and tried to gaze upon the goings on around her with as much disinterest as possible. She ignored the sight of Hannah Abbot being raped by multiple people in the corner of the room, ignored the swell of Luna Lovegood's abdomen, ignored the way that the men that surrounded her leered at her and asked Rabastan for a demonstration of how he liked to use her.

She managed to block out most of the Dark Lord's speech, managed to not scream and throw her glass of champagne at him when he toasted to the death of her former boyfriend. She managed not to smile delightedly when he began to cough violently midway through, sounding as if he'd managed to contract something that had his lungs full of fluid.

That night when they went home she and Rabastan lay in their bed and stared at the ceiling in silence for a long time before she turned and buried herself in his arms and fell asleep.

 _ **June**_

"I'm in love with him." Ginny stared at Hermione for a few minutes, trying to gauge how serious her friend was. "Theo, I mean, I'm in love with him." Dead serious, it would seem.

"When did that happen?" Ginny asked.

"I don't know." Hermione shrugged. "I mean, at first I hated him but... he's been kind to me Ginny. He didn't want this, he didn't want to be a Death Eater, he wasn't given a choice." Ginny nodded slowly.

"Well, good for you, I guess," she murmured. There was a long, awkward silence.

"What about you?" Hermione asked. Ginny shook her head.

"No, I'm not in love with Theo," she snarked. Hermione punched her arm.

"I meant Rabastan you idiot."

Ginny frowned. "I'm not in love with him either," she admitted. "I... he's been kind, he doesn't mistreat me and he never forced me to have sex with him, never even pressured me about it, but he's a Death Eater because that's what he wanted. He wanted to kill and torture and rape people. He joined the Dark Lord because he wanted to, no one forced him. I like him well enough, I suppose, and he's a good fuck, but I don't think I could ever love him." Hermione looked disappointed but she didn't push the subject.

"If you say so Gin," she sighed and turned back to her book.

 _ **July**_

Harry's birthday came. Ginny sat in her favorite seat in the library and stared out the window, trying to decide what she was feeling. She'd woken that morning expecting the same crushing grief she'd felt a year earlier. She'd waited for the tears to come, to fill her eyes and run down her face. When she'd laid there for an hour and the grief didn't come and the tears were nowhere to be found she hadn't known what to make of it.

She knew, of course, that a part of her would always mourn Harry, would always love Harry, but she wasn't so sure that those were things that she felt so completely anymore. Harry no longer consumed her thoughts, she no longer found herself falling to her knees and sobbing uncontrollably for no other reason than Harry's face had flashed through her mind.

She had loved Harry Potter, still loved him, but she found, that with each passing day, she no longer loved him with her whole heart. She was healing, and she thought that maybe it's what Harry would have wanted.

 _ **August**_

Rabastan brought her a box of things from the Burrow. "They ransacked the entire place, there wasn't much left to save, but I brought... I brought what I could."

Ginny opened the box and sifted through the contents, smiling softly at the knitting needles and yarn that had belonged to her mother, still attached to an unfinished Weasley sweater with the start of what looked to be a C. She felt her heart constrict at the sight of her mother's beloved clock, all but two hands, hers and Hermione's, pointed to 'LOST'. The tears didn't come until she pulled her parent's wedding picture out, and they only got worse when she found the family picture album lying at the bottom of the box. She spent a lot of time flipping through the pictures, reliving the memories.

"Why did you do this for me?" she asked him, when the box was empty. Rabastan shrugged in a way that, if she didn't know him better, would have looked nonchalant.

"Happy Birthday Gin," was all he said.

 _ **September**_

"When I was in school I met a girl named Samantha, she was a Hufflepuff, used to help me with my Ancient Runes homework." Rabastan stared at the ceiling as he spoke. Ginny watched in interest as he swallowed thickly before continuing. "I used to tease her that she should have been in Gryffindor instead of Hufflepuff, she was ridiculously brave. I don't think there was anything that scared that girl."

"What happened to her?" Ginny asked quietly.

"She was ridiculously brave," he repeated with a bitter laugh. "She picked a fight with Dolohov, he cursed her, no one could prove it so he got away with it." Ginny didn't miss the way his voice caught or the single tear that slid down his face as he spoke.

"You were in love with her." It wasn't a question.

"She was a muggleborn, it never would have worked out." He turned his head to look at her. "You remind me of her." Ginny drew in a shaky breath. This was not the kind of pillow talk they usually engaged in, it was too personal, it made him seem more like a man and less like the monster she'd been fighting to remind herself that he could be.

"I'm a prisoner," she whispered, "it'll never work out."

 _ **October**_

He was gone a lot. Ginny hated to admit that there were nights she lay in bed and held her breath as she prayed he would come home unharmed. She'd never been much for praying, she'd never much believed that anyone was listening, and in her life she'd only ever prayed for two people. Harry and Rabastan. And if that wasn't fucked up she didn't know what was.

It was one thing to fuck one's captor, it was completely another to care about them. Especially when one's captor is a self proclaimed murderer and rapist. Sometimes Ginny looked at him and she felt sick at the rush of warmth that swept through her. Sometimes she was so relieved when he came home that she wanted to weep. She told herself that she was just glad she wouldn't have to be passed off to someone else, someone less respectful of her boundaries, she hadn't quite managed to convince herself yet.

Sometimes she wondered if maybe Hermione had it right. She hadn't come right out and said it but Ginny knew that Hermione thought Ginny might have feelings for Rabastan. She might not have been so afraid if she knew exactly what those feelings were.

 _ **November**_

"Hannah Abbot is dead," Hermione told her. "She threw herself out a window. Theo says she might have survived but the window was closed and a shard of glass cut her throat open." Ginny sighed.

"Can't say I blame her," Ginny said with a shrug. Hermione glared at her.

"Ginerva Molly Weasley what the bloody hell are you on about?" she growled.

"I'm just saying, if I had to shag Rowle every night I'd kill myself too." Ginny smirked at her friend. "To be honest I'm surprised Luna hasn't done away with herself yet, shagging Malfoy is one thing, but carrying his spawn? No thanks."

"Please, Luna is over the moon with happiness, Draco treats her like a fucking queen," Hermione scoffed. "If old snakeface would allow it I'm willing to bet he'd marry her."

"Since when do you call him Draco?" Ginny demanded in feigned outrage.

"Since Theo and I have tea with him and Luna every Sunday and dinner with them every Tuesday," Hermione informed her. Ginny laughed and shook her head. Hermione frowned. "What?"

"I'm just-" Ginny clutched her stomach and laughed harder "- picturing you sitting down to _tea_ with Draco _sodding_ Malfoy and having a polite conversation with Luna about Nargles or something equally ridiculous over dinner." Hermione snorted.

"You think Luna is weird, did you know Draco is afraid of ladybugs?"

 _ **December**_

It was Christmas that did her in. Sitting in front of the fireplace with Rabastan and watching anxiously as he opened the gift she'd made him. The moment she saw the look on his face when the wrapping paper fell to the side and revealed the poorly knitted sapphire and silver Weasley sweater she knew that she was in trouble.

In all honesty she probably should have realized she was in trouble the moment she'd started knitting him the damn thing. She kept telling herself that she did it out of boredom, because she'd already made Hermione one and didn't think Malfoy would let Luna look at hers, lest it offend his pompous pureblood sensibilities.

But in the moment that the paper fell away and revealed the silver R that had been done in Ginny's sloppy, uneven stitches Rabastan's face had lit up brighter than the Christmas tree sitting in the corner of the room. The not so subtle fluttering in her stomach at the ridiculous smile on his face told her all she needed to know. She didn't love him, she liked to believe that she wasn't quite that naive, but she cared about him. She certainly fancied him. And maybe at the end of the day, if she really thought about it, the potential for love was there.

 _ **January**_

Lyra Marcella Malfoy entered the world as the first baby of the new year. Twenty seven hours after her birth Luna and Malfoy took her from their home in Malfoy Manor and fled the country. Voldemort killed three of his Death Eaters in his rage over the betrayal of the Malfoy heir.

He'd demanded that Ginny and Hermione be present for the meeting where he'd tortured Theo for two hours, to show them what happened to people who crossed him. Halfway through his magic had failed and Ginny had been slapped for smiling when he'd been unable to torture Hermione. She could feel the bruise forming on her cheek. When Rabastan brought her home afterwards he'd carried her directly into the shower and they sat on the floor fully clothed while the water soaked them both.

"I know that you must be angry with me, you might as well yell now Gin," he said softly. Ginny looked up at him and shook her head.

"I'm not going to yell at you," she told him. "I'm not even angry. Disappointed that Luna got away and I'm still stuck here, maybe, but I'm not angry." Rabastan stared at her.

"Do you want to leave the country?" he asked her. Ginny sighed and thought about it for a minute before shaking her head.

"I want to be safe, I want you to be safe, but this is my home, it's the only thing I've ever known, I don't want to leave it," she admitted. Rabastan grinned widely at her. "What?" she asked.

"You want me to be safe," he said, smirking. "You care about me." Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well, don't let it go to your head or anything," she huffed.

 _ **February**_

She wondered what kind of person she was that she could sit comfortably on the couch with a murderer and not have a problem with it. She'd always thought that she was good, that there was no morally grey, simply black and white, and she lived in the white. She was starting to realize, as Rabastan put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him, so that she was leaning against him with her head resting on his shoulder, that she couldn't have been more wrong.

Yes, Rabastan killed people, and he did a lot of unsavory things to others, but never to her. She didn't actually encourage his homicidal tendencies, quite the opposite, but she was disturbed to realize that as long as they weren't aimed at her she didn't particularly care either way. However, there did seem to be one thing that did bother her.

"You're thinking awfully hard about something Gin," Rabastan mused. "What's wrong?"

"Do you-" she bit her lip and tried to think of the best way to word her question. "If I asked you-" she groaned and ran a hand through her hair. "You care about me," she stated.

"I do," he agreed, eyeing her curiously. Ginny frowned and nodded thoughtfully.

"Have you- Since we've been together- I mean-" Rabastan slid off the couch to kneel on the floor in front of her.

"Are you asking me if I've been unfaithful?" he asked her seriously. Ginny huffed out a laugh and closed her eyes.

"I'm asking... if you've... unfaithful isn't exactly the word I'd use..."

"You want to know if I've raped anyone?" he guessed. Ginny nodded. "Open your eyes and look at me," he commanded. Ginny sighed and let her eyes flutter open to meet his. "There's no one but you, there's been no one but you, there will not be anyone but you for as long as you want me Ginny. Willing or otherwise, I will not betray you that way." The depth of the sincerity in his eyes surprised her and she felt her own eye well up with tears. He smiled at her and she felt her heart flutter in her chest. It was a beautiful moment, right up to the point that she opened her mouth and vomited on his shoes.

 _ **March**_

She threw up more than she thought could possibly be normal. Every morning she woke up sick, every time she ate more than a handful of anything she was sick, every time Rabastan looked at her cross eyed she was sick. It was beyond ridiculous because she was starving and she couldn't eat anything.

"Ginny when was your last monthly?" Hermione asked her as they both kneeled on the bathroom floor in front of the toilet, Hermione was holding back the long strands of copper hair while Ginny heaved up the small amount of food she'd managed to consume that day. Ginny closed her eyes, trying to remember.

"I'm not- December?" She frowned. "That can't be right, how could I not have noticed?"

"Ginny I'm going to go get Theo's wand, I'll be right back." Hermione left the room and while she was gone Ginny went to the sink and brushed her teeth to remove the acrid taste of vomit from her mouth.

When Hermione returned with Theo's wand – Ginny tried to control the jealousy she felt at the sight of a wand in her friend's hand – she immediately cast a spell at Ginny's midsection. Her brows raised slightly at the results as a smirk crept across her face.

"Well, looks like you're about to start your own Weasley brood Gin, you're pregnant." Ginny fainted.

 _ **April**_

Pregnant.

Ginny wasn't sure how she felt about it. She wasn't sure how she felt about anything anymore. She hadn't told Rabastan yet and she was sure that the moment she saw his reaction she'd be able to have her own. They'd never talked about the future, about having a family or getting married, although she suspected that marriage was off the table since Voldemort refused to allow any of the captives he'd gifted to his followers basic human rights.

She watched him from the doorway of his study as he sat at his desk and poured over a book. She smiled when he looked up at her, an unconscious expression that she found herself doing a lot more these days.

"What?" he asked, returning her smile.

"I'm pregnant," she told him, watching his face carefully. His smile grew and he stood up from his chair so fast that he knocked it over backwards in his rush to get to her.

"Are you sure?" he asked, dropping to his knees in front of her and showering her abdomen in kisses. "How do you know?" Ginny laughed at his excitement.

"I'm sure," she assured him. "Hermione did the spell a few weeks ago when she and Theo were visiting." He pulled back and fixed her with a stern look.

"You've known for weeks and you're just now telling me?" he demanded. Ginny nodded.

"I wasn't sure if you would be happy about it," she admitted. He scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Of course I'm happy Ginny, you're having a baby, _our_ baby!" His smile was absolutely ecstatic. "I love you," he said, going back to kissing her stomach. Ginny froze and stared down at him, her eyes wide.

He loved her. She'd known, of course, that he cared for her, he's told her many times, but to hear that he loved her, actually _loved_ her... She felt her eyes well up with tears at the realization that somewhere between becoming his lover and getting pregnant with his child she'd grown to feel more for him than she'd ever wanted to admit. Suddenly she was a lot happier about the baby than she had been only moments before.

"I love you too," she whispered. His eyes shot up to meet hers and she realized that she wasn't the only one with tears in her eyes.


	4. The Pregnancy

_**May**_

"I'd say you're due early September," the medi-witch announced cheerfully. Ginny frowned.

"September? Why did my pregnancy symptoms start so late? I'm not even showing, shouldn't I have a bump by now?" she asked in confusion. Rabastan squeezed her hand gently in support.

"Every witch is different, as much as people like to claim that _this_ should happen within this box of time and _that_ should happen within that box of time it really doesn't work that way," the medi-witch explained. "Some women go their entire pregnancy without ever discovering that they're pregnant, they don't have symptoms, they don't show, and they get one hell of a surprise when they walk into St. Mungos and get told they're about to have a baby when they only came in for intense stomach cramps. These things happen, they aren't common, but they happen." Ginny nodded her understanding and shifted in her seat.

"Am I far enough along to tell if they're a girl or a boy?" she asked. Glancing at Rabastan. "We don't have to if you don't want, but I want to know," she explained. Rabastan nodded.

"I'd like to know as well," he agreed. The medi-witch flicked her wand at Ginny's abdomen and smiled widely.

"It's a girl," she said and Rabastan thought his heart might explode.

 _ **June**_

They argued about names, never quite able to agree on anything. She liked Jennifer, he liked Kathryn, they argued about it into the early hours of the morning. He suggested Sloane and she threw a vase at his head. It would have been unbearable if every argument didn't end in mind blowing sex.

"At this rate we'll end up calling her 'Girl' and she'll never have a name," he complained to Theo over drinks one night. Theo just laughed at him, completely unsympathetic.

"Draco and Luna argued over names too," he said, smiling fondly at the thought of his best friend. "Hermione said she'd never seen Luna raise her voice before but she did with Draco, several times."

"Do you know-"

"America. The Magical Congress offered them protection," Theo told him, knowing what he was going to ask. "They're married now, Draco sends pictures of Lyra to Hermione once a month, they're happy." Rabastan looked over at Theo and eyed him nervously.

"That's risky, sending you and Hermione letters," he mused. "What if the Dark Lord tracks them down?" Theo rolled his eyes.

"The Dark Lord is dying, both his health and his magic are failing him." Theo scowled. "When he's gone Lucius has plans on how to take over and set things back to the way they were." Rabastan nodded in understanding and the subject was dropped.

"When are you going to knock up your bird?" he asked. He laughed when Theo's eyes went wide and choked on his drink.

 _ **July**_

He bought her a ring. It was a disastrous thing but he tried. He made her dinner and they ate it on a blanket he'd laid out on the floor in front of the fireplace and he'd put the ring in her glass of sparkling cider and she'd very nearly swallowed it.

"Why are you trying to kill me with a sapphire ring?" she asked him, quirking an eyebrow.

"Well I was trying to propose but apparently you don't pay any attention at all to the things you put in your mouth," he said, chuckling in amusement. Ginny glared at him.

"Are you trying to tell me I don't pay enough attention to your cock?" she demanded. He burst into hysterical laughter, which wasn't, apparently, what Ginny had wanted. She stood up and began to march away angrily and he had to chase her down and stop her from leaving the room.

"I'm sorry, I'm trying to do this right and-"

"We can't get married," she told him coldly. His laughing smile died on his lips and he felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach.

"What? Why not?" he demanded, unable to keep the hurt out of his voice. Ginny's angry expression softened.

"We're not allowed. The Dark Lord wouldn't allow it for Draco and Luna and I highly doubt he'll change his mind for us." She sighed and reached out to touch his face. "I would marry you Rabastan, if I could." He felt his heart soar at her words. She amazed him, everything about her amazed him. That she could love him despite the part of him that was a monster amazed him.

 _ **August**_

She woke up on Percy's birthday crying. She spent most of the morning sitting in the library, staring at the pictures of her and her brother and desperately wishing that she could talk to him, that she could tell him about the child growing inside of her or about the love she had found in such an unexpected place.

She knew that if anyone could understand her odd romance Percy could, if for no other reason than he was the only person she could think of that would even try. Her parents would have been disappointed in her, the rest of her brothers would have been furious that she'd fallen for a Death Eater, but Percy, Percy would have listened to all the reasons she had for loving Rabastan and when she was done talking he would have nodded and told her that if she was happy then that was okay. He had only ever wanted her to be happy.

She took a shower after lunch, taking the opportunity to cry more because honestly it was the one day she really gave herself to cry anymore. She washed herself hurriedly, not really knowing why she was rushing but feeling the urget sense to be done as quickly as possible and get out of there. In her haste to get out of the shower she turned too fast and her foot slid on the slick tile floor. She fell, landing hard and sending a jolt through her entire body.

She screamed at the ripping sensation she felt deep in her stomach. The pain was blinding, so much so that she didn't even realize that Rabastan had run into the room until he was kneeling by her side, smoothing her hair away from her face.

"Gin, it's going to be okay, Theo is flooing for the medi-witch," he whispered to her. Ginny blinked up at him, breathing hard between sobs and screams because everything fucking hurt.

"It hurts. Rabastan it hurts," she whimpered.

"I know, there's a lot of blood Gin, and the baby's coming." She shook her head violently.

"She's too early Rabastan she'll never make it," she argued.

"She will, magic can do a lot, she's only a month early, she'll live."

"No ones coming. Your medi-witch is doing someone else's delivery right now and no one else is available," Theo spoke as he ran into the room, not bothering to look away from Ginny's nudity. "I'm going to go get Hermione, but you're going to have to deliver that baby by yourself Rab." Ginny felt a spike of fear shoot through her, laced with panic and pain.

"I'm not ready for this," she admitted when Theo was gone, but Rabastan was already kneeling between her legs and telling her to push while murmuring things that she was sure were supposed to be comforting that she couldn't hear over the pain and the sound of her own screaming.

She had no idea how much time had passed, no idea of how long it took before her baby tore her way from her womb and into the world, it felt like a lifetime, but by the time it was over Ginny couldn't even be relieved. The sound of her baby crying rang in her ears even as the edges of darkness began to push down on her.

"She's so perfect Gin," she heard Rabastan say. "She's got your hair. She's healthy, strong just like you. She's going to be okay Ginny." Peace. That's what she felt the moment the words left Rabastan's lips. Her daughter was going to live, she was strong and healthy.

"Ginny?" Her eyes flew open at the sound of the voice that she was sure she could not have heard. But she had, she was sure, because she could see him, he was there. "Come with me," he invited, smiling. "I've missed you."

"Percy." She reached out and took his hand, her baby's cries still ringing in her ears.


	5. The Daughter

" _Ginny?" Her eyes flew open at the sound of the voice that she was sure she could not have heard. But she had, she was sure, because she could see him, he was there. "Come with me," he invited, smiling. "I've missed you."_

" _Percy." She reached out and took his hand, her baby's cries still ringing in her ears. They took a few steps away but then she turned, trying to get a look at the infant nestled in Rabastan's arms, and her heart felt heavy at the thought of leaving her._

" _It's not forever Ginny," Percy told her. She turned back to look at him._

" _What's not forever?" she asked. He smiled sadly._

" _You'll see us again, if you choose not to come with me now you will see us again," he explained. She frowned, not entirely certain what he was trying to tell her._

" _I get to choose?" she asked, frowning.  
_

" _Of course, you can come with me, or you can stay with her," he said softly. "Life is all about choices, I made mine, our parents made theirs, now it's time for you to make yours. It's been two years Gin, don't you think it's time you started living?"_

 _She looked back over her shoulder at her baby, red faced and screaming, and she found that the decision was easy. Those little cries were something worth living for. "I love you Percy," she told him._

" _I'll be here, when your time comes, I'll be waiting." They smiled at one another as he faded away._

 _ **Ten Years Later**_

Percy Kathryn Lestrange was just like her mother. She had copper colored hair and bright eyes that sparkled with mischief. She was prone to scraped knees and black eyes, though she would rarely tell you how she'd gotten them. She was brave. Strong and fearless and she terrified Rabastan in those moments when she would open her mouth and channel Ginny to perfection.

Ginny would take her every year on her birthday up the hill on the far side of their property to where Rabastan had put Percy Weasley's grave. Every year she would tell her daughter a new story about the man who had been her namesake, the uncle she shared a birthday with. Every year Percy would listen to the story before running off to play while Ginny would sit next to her brother's grave and tell him everything she thought he'd like to know.

She told him that the Dark Lord had finally died about a year after Percy's birth, how Lucius Malfoy had taken over as Minister and how he had set the world right. Or about as right as it could be under the circumstances, there were still revels, Rabastan still went out and hunted down and tortured muggles before he killed them. He was not a redeemed man, but he loved Ginny, and he loved their daughter, and she found that that was all she cared about in the end.

She told him about Draco and Luna's daughter, Lyra, how she was Percy's best friend, along with Hermione and Theo's son, Harry. She looked back on the day her daughter was born and wondered if she had really seen Percy that day or if it had just been her subconscious seeking to give her closure on the one part of her past that she could never seem to get over. Either way she was grateful for the memory as it was infinitely better than the last memory she had of him when he was alive.

"Mummy!" Percy squealed happily, running full speed towards her mother. "I caught a frog Mummy! Can I keep it?" she asked, eyes sparkling with excitement. Ginny laughed lightly at her exuberance.

"Ask your father," she said, smiling broadly. Percy spun around and ran in the opposite direction towards the house where Rabastan was waiting for them.

"Papa! I caught a frog! Can I keep him?" Ginny watched as Rabastan scooped their daughter up in his arms and spun her around in a circle making her squeal and giggle in delight. _Somehow_ , Ginny thought, _everything worked out in the end._

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for reading this story! I hope that you enjoyed it! Although this is not the original ending I had intended I am very happy with how this story worked out.  
**

 **I'd like to thank all of you for your reviews, your support means so much to me!**


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